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No running water? Schwarzenegger

Jumi

Well-Known Member
Well, duh...living in my grandparents house in the 1960's; thankfully they had electricity but no running water. They had a well beside the house and one of my chores as a ten year-old was getting that heavy bucket out of the well without spilling it. Another one of my chores was starting a fire out back to heat the water for washing and bathing. And, yes, we took baths in a washtub; and, no, these were not "the good ol' days...".
Yeah, I actually forgot doing this carrying water chore, because I must have been like 6 or 7 when my grandparents got a pump system. Then you had to carry firewood. Yeah, not the good old days. Though at least getting exercise was easy.
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
They're great in winter. Go mostly naked and walk bristly into the sauna 100 meters away in -30 Celsius, perhaps when coming back you will need an "oatshake" (=beer).
I have ran from the sauna, into a snowdrift and then back again. Now I have neither snowdrifts nor sauna:(

ETA: I also had a cousin who from northern Minnesota where the Finnish population is quite large, vist another that lived in a suburb of Minneapolis. Of course it was a modern house fully plumbed. When he got home he was amazed and wondered how they stayed clean without a sauna. Showers meant nothing to him.
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
Yeah, I actually forgot doing this carrying water chore, because I must have been like 6 or 7 when my grandparents got a pump system. Then you had to carry firewood. Yeah, not the good old days. Though at least getting exercise was easy.
The house that I grew up in relied on both an oil furnace that sat in the living room (talk about "central heat") and a Franklin stove. That is a small cast iron stove that one burnt wood in. I did more than my share of splitting wood and carrying it to the house. That was not that bad. If you were cold you got both some exercise that warmed you up and wood that would finish the job.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
The closest I've come to living like that is washing myself in a sink with a broken faucet and little water pressure. As for the toilet, that was broken (tank broke in half due to freezing due to no heat in winter). As for what we did with the waste, I'll leave that to your imagination.

Actually, crapping in the woods and washing in a stream would've been a luxary compared to that.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Sitting outhouse or one of those landhole things?


I can imagine the happiness... :)


You asked, a hole in the ground between the beans and grape vines.


I wondered whether his house was also wired or if that was a job for another time
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Yes, in trips to India. I called for a pail of "garam panne" (hot water) and took a cup, dipped it into hot water and then cold and then over my body.

It was an adventure back then.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
In my teens I frequented a hunting and fishing camp that had an outdoor hand pump well and an outhouse. It was heated by a fireplace and the kitchen wood-burning stove.

Later, I lived in neighborhoods in Chicago where the buildings were all built as cold-water flats, for the working class. They were built with a kitchen sink and a 'water closet' (toilet) both supplied with cold water only. The family members went to their neighborhood bathhouse once a week for their baths. Later, when their owners could afford it, they installed a hot water tank (usually in the corner of the kitchen so everyone could see it, as it was a symbol of prosperity), and a bathtub in the pantry (because the water closets were too small, and there was no other place to put them near the plumbing).

As I worked on these buildings in later years it was fun to 'excavate' them and uncover their original layouts.
 

Ellen Brown

Well-Known Member
In a local newspaper it was said that Arnold had no running water at home and going to a shower at 15 years of age was a first. Have you been in such a situation or can you imagine having no running water?

In the years 1950 to around 1955, (Born in 1947), we lived in a homesteaders shack in then very rural Oregon. We were the first to occupy the place after the original Homesteader died. There was no bathroom. We used a tiny little shed outside, in back, about 50 feet from the house. Water came from a spring that came out of the hillside, and was piped via a syphon a few hundred feet long down into a cistern above the house. Cold water only was piped into the house above a 19th century style "sink", and that drained through an open hole in the side of the shack out into a field and ran down the hill. We had a wood cooking stove with a tank on the side that could heat water for baths. One night a week that water filled a metal wash tub that was dragged into the house, and all six of us children plus our parents washed in the same small tub. I was strongly admonished NOT to pee in the water.

The house burned down and my older siblings and stepfather built another one, in I think, less than a year.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
The house that I grew up in relied on both an oil furnace that sat in the living room (talk about "central heat") and a Franklin stove. That is a small cast iron stove that one burnt wood in. I did more than my share of splitting wood and carrying it to the house. That was not that bad. If you were cold you got both some exercise that warmed you up and wood that would finish the job.
You think that's tough?
When I was a kid, my TV was only black & white.
And Sunday morning, the only non-religious programming was curling out of Canuckistan!
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
You think that's tough?
When I was a kid, my TV was only black & white.
And Sunday morning, the only non-religious programming was curling out of Canuckistan!
The horror! The horror! I lived through the black and white era, but I do not think I could have handled curling.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
In a local newspaper it was said that Arnold had no running water at home and going to a shower at 15 years of age was a first. Have you been in such a situation or can you imagine having no running water?

I remember having a central manual water pump outside, outhouses and taking a bath in the living room in a big tub with water heated on the stove. Probably not all that convenient by today's standards but folks got by.

First running water was a water tower we had on our land. I was too young to think anything special by it.
 

lostwanderingsoul

Well-Known Member
Wife grew up in Philippines. Had to pump water by hand into a bucket and then carry it about 100 feet to house. Things have improved since then but it was hard for her as a child.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
You think that's tough?
When I was a kid, my TV was only black & white.
And Sunday morning, the only non-religious programming was curling out of Canuckistan!

Yeah we had 3 stations. Got to watch Gumby on Saturday and Twilight Zone Friday nights. Grandmother lived near LA had maybe 9 stations. That was a luxury.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Yeah we had 3 stations. Got to watch Gumby on Saturday and Twilight Zone Friday nights. Grandmother lived near LA had maybe 9 stations. That was a luxury.
I think we had 4 stations because of the one out of Canuckistan.
When UHF arrived, it was heaven....channels 24 & 50...wow!
 

wandering peacefully

Which way to the woods?
Premium Member
Hmm. I still use a wood stove to heat my "house". I do have running water and electric but it goes out several times a year. Sometimes for a week. No problem! Heat the water on the wood stove and dump it in the claw foot bath. Dig out the porta potty. Who needs electricity?!
 

Erebus

Well-Known Member
Every few years we go without running water in my town for two or three days. It happened last year in the late summer as a result of a burst water pipe. Annoying but no big deal, right? The council handed out bottled water for free and it was only a couple of days.

Yeah, people acted like it was the end times. They not only stocked up on the free bottled water but on every bottle of milk, juice and pop they could get hold of.

I don't think my town would cope with genuine adversity.
 
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